


Another me and many versions of you

by from_theeast



Category: NU'EST
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Civil War, Hurt/Comfort, Love Letters, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:07:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25911847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/from_theeast/pseuds/from_theeast
Summary: Tell me, darling,If the war outside our door keeps raging on, will I find the peace that I am searching for by looking at the you from another world?
Relationships: Hwang Minhyun & Kim Jonghyun | JR, Hwang Minhyun/Kim Jonghyun | JR
Comments: 16
Kudos: 20
Collections: Nu'fics x The Parallel





	Another me and many versions of you

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to @jju_nyaa for helping me all the way, your words give me strength!!!
> 
> Hope you guys like it and feel free to drop feedback~

Minhyun takes the subway as soon as possible after receiving his payment. Three hundred gold coins wrapped carefully by raw cloth pull his right pocket down. He walks along Station No.4, passing by the corridor which was destroyed terribly by chloric bomb, and is now being concealed by acrylic Renaissance paintings. Today, he doesn’t have time to judge the artist unlike usual. 

Hurriedly jumping on the last train to the center of the city, Minhyun sits in the last row and starts writing down in his small notebook. His dirty fingers are bleeding and his handwriting is shaky but it is fine, as long as he still can write, as long as the ink and paper still can describe his inner character. Minhyun used to be a teacher, now he's working in a forge. 

**_"My beloved Jonghyun,_ **

**_Today Aron yelled at me again. He complained about how slow I was compared to others, that what I was trying to do is nothing but a waste of time. But I believe under that cold, grumbling look is a sensitive, lonely heart. He was just angry because he didn't think about this idea at first. I saw him once fascinated by my work and I trust that he understands how strongly the idea of knowing that there’s someone waiting for you to come home can actually bring you home. Because he is waiting, too._ **

**_Remember to tell me next time if you receive any bullet with an ‘H’ on it. I carved it myself, line by line, ten bullets per magazine. My beloved Jonghyun, you are not and will never have to fight alone."_ **

Minhyun looks up when he feels someone staring at him. He catches a shy glance from a little girl, who is sitting with her mother across him. Minhyun gives her a small smile and the girl immediately hides behind her mother. 

**_"There's a little angel who can't stop looking at me. And her twinkling eyes remind me of the widow’s daughter who hired me to write letters for her old mother in law. She stopped coming last week, the old lady passed away. She told me that her mother had gone in pride knowing that her son now is a commander in the frontline. I am happy to know that my words could help her rest in peace._ **

**_The last time we met, she gave me a leather notebook as a payment but I refused. It's from him; I couldn't take the last gift from her beloved husband away._ **

**_So sad that I have to stop the letter here. I have to go now, in a few minutes the eclipse will begin, I can’t stop being too excited to see us._ **

****

**_Until next time,_ ** **_  
_ ** **_Yours."_ **

_ “The world we’re living in is not unique and so are we. There are different  _ **_“us”_ ** _ in different universes that are parallel and orbit around The Eternal Sun, whose core connects to each one in an invisible line. If we can define the connection point, we can see how another us is living in another world. In Universe No. 315, the furthest from the Sun, the point is in  _ **_the Fortress of Hope_ ** _. Only once in a hundred years can we greet another us in another universe. Let us gather and pray, come and celebrate. The gate is open for everyone-” _

A timid female voice from the speaker creeps in the swaying stair handles under Minhyun’s hand. Step by step, he’s going to the Fortress of Hope. The sky above him is getting darker, a sign that the eclipse will start soon and he would miss his slot if he didn’t hurry.

Behind five pillars of quartz in Gothic style architecture is a massive structure, whose left side collapsed from the battle last night. The fire is still burning but nobody cares— compared to last month’s attack, it’s nothing. There’s a long line of waiting people; in other times, Minhyun can imagine there would be families and couples excitedly and nervously getting in line. But now they are all blue, struggling between hopefulness and hopelessness. Minhyun rubs his right pocket to calm his racing heart. 

He gazes at his worn out shoes being covered by snow. Snow has been falling for six months, crumbly and salty. People are whispering on the street that this is blood, sweat, and tears of sacrificed soldiers at the Red Bridge, that the government has collected their corpses, burnt them to ash with salt, and sprayed throughout the sky to not just commemorate but also accuse the East Coast of causing these unnecessary catastrophic deaths. 

People are disgusted and scared to the bone. In their eyes, the city is now being cursed by its own rapacity. All the colours of wealth and lust, happiness and love have left but black and white. Only until the day these two colours cover them all that the world can rest in peace. 

**_"My beloved Jonghyun,_ **

**_Tears cover my face whenever looking at the snowy white sky. I think about your comrades, whom you fought for, who fought for you and with you, who used to stay awake at night to keep you safe, or whom you shared a small piece of bread with to calm the hunger. Does your heart turn blue whenever the snowflakes touch your skin and burn your bare hands?_ **

**_Don't hesitate to let me feel your emotions._ **

**_Jonghyun, are you looking at the same sky with me?"_ **

"Next! I said NEXT!” The cashier’s voice resounds and it pulls him back to reality.   
  


“Money.”

The cashier holds out his crushed hand from behind the bar to Minhyun’s face. His voice chokes with the accent from the edge of East Coast. No one knows how a man from the border could survive on this side and even have a superficial position, but no one dares to gossip about it. Just take a look at the crushed hand; only crazy people would use their hand to cover the muzzle of the gun.

Minhyun hurriedly hands him the money..

“Been here before?”

“No.”

“Enter your name, date of birth and coordinates.” The man pauses. “Know your coordinates?”

“Yes.” Minhyun nods and starts to type in the necessary information. 

The moment he presses ‘enter’, the grand machine starts to roar and scream, like a wounded wild animal, with a dozen gears rotating evenly in lack of oiled condition. The machine is exhausted from bearing so much hope for those who choose to gaze into the telescope made of pure gold and reindeer bones.

Minhyun looks through the monolithic crystal lens at the same time the cashier shouts again.

“Three minutes. Start now!”

Tick tock, Tick tock.   


Like a heartbeat.   


The Earth he is watching is No. 869. Here time goes by so much slower than No. 315 with brick and cement buildings, traffic lights, cars— full of vivid colours. The room he is looking into is painted in a soft shade of yellow filament lights. There are candles on the pressed wooden table in front of a sofa set. There’s tea in the kitchen.

Jonghyun is standing close to the window with his forehead pressed on the glass to see the outside world where roads and cars are intertwined. Minhyun peers along Jonghyun’s cheekbone to his sharp jawline, imagining the warmth and softness of his complexion contrasted to the light red of the sweater he is wearing. 

Then Jonghyun suddenly turns around and their eyes meet. Jonghyun’s gaze spears through billions of light years all the way to the Earth No. 315, swirls inside the weary and always trembling soul by hearing so much of resounding hammer and firecrackers. His look is so tender and joyful, as if he’s been waiting to find him for a long, long time.

But Minhyun knows it is not like that.

The clicking sound of a closing door, and Minhyun sees himself in a striped shirt under a pale sweater, struggling to take off his shoes while holding big and small paper bags. Minhyun ignores Jonghyun and walks straight into the kitchen, unpacking all the things in the bags. An apple rolls on the table and falls to the floor, continuing to spin until it reaches Jonghyun’s bare foot and stops. He picks it up and takes a huge bite on purpose since, no matter what, he will be nagged at by Minhyun. Too much wax and preservative, Minhyun would always nag like that.

Today, the concerned grunts are replaced by an annoyed frown. Minhyun walks around the kitchen table, takes the bitten apple from Jonghyun’s hand, then soaks it in warm water. Between them is the sound of the microwave heating up leftovers instead of love songs, the sound of water washing vegetables instead of the daily conversations, the sighs intertwine with the ticking of the second hand of the clock instead of sudden hugs and small kisses.

Tick tock, tick tock.

Like a heartbeat.

Jonghyun strokes his sleeve and pulls out an unraveled thread into a long string. The apartment above them randomly plays Careless Whisper by The Wham. Minhyun begins to marinate the pork with pepper before sprinkling a layer of basil on top. Jonghyun hesitates but still steps closer to him. Careless Whisper hits its chorus. 

Tick tock, tick tock.

2:56.

One step closer.

2:57.

Jonghyun reaches for the knife and takes it out of Minhyun’s hand. There’s a piece of cheese that’s left uncut.

2:58.

Minhyun stares as Jonghyun uses the red thread that comes out of his sweater, meticulously wrapping two rounds on his ring finger then ties it into a small bow.

2:59.

He sees the way Jonghyun looks at his lower lip while biting his own, his hair drooping down is both thick and soft. All Minhyun does is comb it back neatly to reveal the shining eyes reflecting what they both want, need, right now.

3:00.

Minhyun is thrust so hard that he falls to the slippery stone ground. There’s a man all smelling like cheap vodka made of potatoes, who scooped him out of the telescope stand, now violently entering his name while still cursing him for being so greedy and slow. Minhyun gets up and brushes off his clothes, limping out of the Fortress of Hope, not forgetting to nod a thanks to the cashier despite his contemptuous look.

Probably a dislocated ankle. He feels his ankle ache with every step. His right pocket is now light but his pounding heart on the left makes him more unsteady. He gropes in his pocket that old worn notebook smudged with coal dust, in which a picture of a man in a military uniform is clipped. His Jonghyun wears a serious look but is all smiles, captured gently by the camera. Minhyun carefully writes on a sheet of paper then carefully tore it, doubling it in half.

**_"They said once you step in the Fortress of Hope, it sows the wish into your arid soul, so I wish nothing more than safely staying by your side at any season, any phase of the moon, any verse of you._ **

**_Until we meet again,  
_ ** **_Yours even when the time gets old.”_ **

**Author's Note:**

> some random prompts on Twitter: @fromthe_east


End file.
